Earlier this week, I published this comment on my social networks: Entrepreneur tip: Outsource your social media marketing to a Virtual Assistant so that you can focus on your clients. One of the members basically responded that a Virtual Assistant can’t build relationships with potential clients, only you can. This is true. This is where social media networking comes in, not social media marketing. Let me explain the difference.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social media marketing is simply marketing through social networks. This can done with a blog, publishing micro-posts on various networks, uploading videos to YouTube, or adding a call to action at the end of your articles, for example, tweet this, digg this or share this. These are a few of the marketing strategies you can use for social media marketing.

What is Social Media Networking?

Social media networking is making connections through social networks; hence, being social. Your connections can be both personal and professional. Professional networking is for building relationships with your potential customers. This type of networking can only be done by you, not your Virtual Assistant.

Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant

It’s important to note that you should not outsource your social media networking; however, you can outsource your social media marketing.

A Virtual Assistant can help you with the back office sort of tasks: for example, setting up your profiles and networks, scheduling your marketing messages, marketing research, managing your contact lists, adding your content to your blog, as well as optimizing it, and uploading your videos to YouTube with the intention of them going viral. These are a few examples of what your Virtual Assistant can do for you. This, in turn, frees up your valuable time allowing you to focus on your clients.

Bottom line, a Virtual Assistant can’t build relationships with your clients for you, but they can help you market to your clients. However, it is necessary for you to establish a relationship before you start marketing to your potential customers. That’s a whole nother topic in itself.

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